July 24th - Hermagor

Richard managed to drive back from Birmingham to make our session this week, so we are four again. Garry's choice and he chose Hermagor, I think the only game he hadn't played from his Essen purchases from last year. Hermagor is a game by Emanuele Ornella, published by several companies, Rio Grande and Mind the Move among them.


Hermagor Board

Basically you are buying products then moving around the map of Hermagor and establishing trading stations and selling them. The board, which is quite a mess, is divided into 3 areas, the map of Hermagor, the marketplace (where the product tiles are bid for) and the production chart which shows how much each product is worth when sold. The game is in 3 phases, first tiles are drawn from a cloth bag and put on the marketplace. There are 3 types of tile, single product which also lets you increase the value of the product if you wish. Double product which doesn't and a few special tiles. Each player has 4 buyers (dobbers) which in turn they place on the tile grid in the spaces between the product tiles this has a cost the most influential spaces costing more, at the end of this the player with the most influence on a tile wins it.


Mid game

In phase 2 the tiles are distributed to the players with the most influence surrounding it. Then there is a payout depending on where your buyers are placed on the marketplace. Then in phase 3 your seller moves around the map establishing trading stations and selling the products that you hold the tile for. Moving along the roads has a cost too, which varies from 2 to 5. You can move and sell, move only or sell only. If you move only, the road tolls are only half. The board is divided into areas and dukedoms, the roads define the areas and rivers define the dukedoms. If you enclose an area with trading stations you can put a dobber on the production chart for a product that is indicated in the area. Basically that is it, you do that for a number of rounds which is determined by the number of playes. At game end you get extra money in several ways. In the dukedom in which you have least trading stations the number of TS is x 3. For each dobber on the production chart you get a points according to the value of the product and the player that has most TS on the main road gets 5 and the player who has the least gets -5. Add up your money and the player with the most is the winner!


Board at game end

Steve was the only one of us to have played before and that was only once. I forgot about the dukedoms completely when choosing my routes so only got 3 points for that whereas Steve got 15. The game is a bit of a brain burner but I enjoyed it and would play it again (and I would remember the dukedoms this time!). The most critical phase is the first, getting the right production tiles for the route you want to follow. I think we all enjoyed it.

Final Scores
Richard 106, Garry 86, Steve 82, Colin 75